How To Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Your Holidays - Without Being Cheap!
by Sherry Gordon

So many of us are disturbed by the commercialism and extravagance of the end-of-the-year holidays...  Much that should be -adding to- our pleasure becomes a burden, both financially and psychologically. ...Yet there are many ways to be frugal -and- giving - in fact, richly - and to conserve resources into the bargain.

True, buying "new" might stimulate the business sector of the economy...  But - well, -my- economy probably has to be of first importance!  Too, purchasing (where one -has- to purchase) used items does a world of good in one's community as well - it stimulates the non-profit and private sectors of the economy, as it were - individuals bolstering their finances by selling/ bartering, good-doing organizations dependent on "rummage" sales, and -both- businesses and individuals gaining via the tax benefits from items donated to non-profits. 

In any case, many aspects of holiday celebration are open to "interpretation" in the light of "The Three Rs" (as waste reduction folks like to call the frugality of conservation).  And whether one is directly concerned with resource conservation or not, reducing, reusing, and recycling can be a whole lot of fun!

What -is- frugality?

"Frugal", in my vocabulary, doesn't necessarily mean "cheap" - or even, necessarily, inexpensive. ...Not meagerness - just not ostentation.  To me, frugality means "what is just enough" - what is right for the circumstances... the people, the occasion. 

This is my philosophy of gift-giving:  Apt meaning is what's important.  What's right -could- be expensive - but if the gift is "right", the expense wouldn't be extravagant (if the giver can afford that, and the receiver will truly appreciate it). 

Limiting yourself to the inexpensive no matter what might mean limiting the impact of your gift - and the pleasure of making gifts meaningful, in multiple layers of meaning, is one of the things -I- receive from giving.  (Of course, if your budget is mighty slim, inexpensive giving would likely be de rigueur...  In which case you can have the fun of coming up with just the right -inexpensive- gift!)

But oh, how -much- an apt inexpensive or free gift can give!...

If you found a lovely crystal formation, for instance (or owned one you were willing to part with), imagine the delight it could bring to a giftee sensitive to its beauty.  Or consider the pleasure a house-bound aunt would take in being given a coupon for a monthly hair appointment in her home.  (There, look at the layering...  A visit; a spruce-up perhaps not otherwise affordable; another layer if the stylist were you - and another if you brought your toddler along. :^)

The holidays, after all, are meant to be meaningful - otherwise, what is celebration for?  They - you - can certainly be frugal without diminishing their meaning one iota...  In fact, you might agree that some appropriate frugality might -add- to your (and others') enjoyment of Christmas, Hannukah, the New Year, or -whatever- you celebrate.

And if reducing, reusing, and recycling gives you pleasure - out of a desire to conserve resources -and/or- money, or just to open up the gift-giving spectrum - here are some ideas for incorporating The Three Rs "resourcefully" into the holidays... 

Greetings:

• There's recycled paper, of course.

• Make greeting postcards out of the fronts of folded greeting cards you received in previous years.

• Use the interesting outer portion of an old card front as the frame for a new design.

• Cut those folded card fronts up...  Glue one shape, or make a simple collage of a few, onto the front of a blank folded card - or make a glued mosaic of bits (cut from the colorful parts you would otherwise have discarded?).

• Use your children's artwork on the fronts instead.

• Or family photos (I always get double prints, do you? - and then I have extras lying around!).

• Make the paper? ;^)

Holiday parties:

• Have a gift exchange featuring recycled gifts (i.e., "white elephants") - fun!  (Or specifically, recycled Christmas tree ornaments?)  Children could exchange in-good-shape toys they've tired of (and bring one for a community toy collection box?). 

• Ask your guests to bring excess food from homes to donate to a food bank.

• Recycle memories? - ask guests to bring their favorite holiday memories to share with the group (backed up by photos, if available). 

• Make "stone soup" - from one over-abundant item in each guest's refrigerator? 

• Meet to glean some veggies from a local farmer's field, go back to your house to wash them for a meals-on-wheels program (and a treat for the guests?).

• Give as "party favors" floor sweepings from a local grain elevator, bagged up as food for guests' local birds.

• Make shrunken-wool hats or mittens (from rummaged sweaters) for a homeless shelter.

Decorations:

• Make a table centerpiece from a ring of repotted herb starts - to give to the guests as parting gifts?

• Quart jars stuffed with strings of tiny white lights make an exquisite window decoration at night.

• Make candle luminarias to light the paths outdoors, spray-painting tin cans that have been decorated by punching with an awl and/or nipping with a triangle-headed can opener.

• Twist branches from a "dead" artificial tree into a wreath.

• Or a -real- "recycled wreath" can be made from chicken wire from the back acres. :^)

• Bringing the outdoors in can be as simple, of course, as fanning out flat leaves as the base for a centerpiece or spreading evergreens (even if palm fronds!) around the room.

• Even the tree might come inside and go back out at the end of the holiday season, if it's potted.  Or sometimes a bundle of branches serves as a similar focal point and ornament hanger.

• Quilt a tree skirt from fabric scraps.

• We "reuse" decorations pleasurably through the years, of course...  That's how they become heirlooms, all those creche sets and tree ornaments and door hangers, etc.

• But maybe one year, use -real- stockings for everybody - wake 'em up!

• So many ornaments can be made from the found or the reused:  old glass balls repainted or stickered; beribboned pinecones; stuffed scrap-fabric shapes; decorated eggshells; stars cut from aluminum pie plates, for light reflectors; lightbulbs decorated as snowmen; magazine photos folded into wonderful origami shapes; and just plain old found objects themselves can be fun.

• And garlands, made from:  pine, fir, or spruce cones; old jigsaw puzzle pieces; paper chains cut from greeting cards of bygone years; crumpled aluminum foil "beads"; sea shells; old buttons strung on bright cording; ha, excess wrapped Halloween candies!

Gifts:

Some people turn up their noses at used items as gifts - but then, that just means the frugality of such a gift wouldn't be "right" in that case.  (Though... if you pick well, maybe they wouldn't -know-... or tell them and let them be amazed!)

• Scrounged nuts, divided bulbs, old bricks, and gorgeous rocks make great gifts - all free.

• Consider adding to someone's collectibles collection from your yard sale finds.

• Make confetti eggs, croutons from elderly bread, baby clothes from discarded turtlenecks, necktie serpents, braided horse tail hair bracelets, picture frames of barn wood, newspaper fire starter pretzels, pinatas!

• If a woodworker doesn't have a subscription, -back-issues- of "Fine Woodworking" would be very welcome.  Or a used classical CD for a music lover.

• Many people are lacking in nails, screws, nuts, washers, and bolts when they need them - give 'em a jarful of oddments from your workshop!

• Wonderful clothing can be found for those who aren't concerned with the latest styles (as toddlers aren't, for instance!).  How about a dress-up box for a young girl?

• Consider wrapping these gifts in:  reused wrapping paper; old maps; scrap fabric; containers such as jars and old tins; pictures from old calendars; painted oatmeal cylinders; fancy foreign food bags.

• Use for decorations:  pinked newspaper strip "ribbons"; reused commercial bows; cut-out pictures; burnt-out Christmas tree light bulbs; -painted- on ribbon; plumber's tape ribbon and bow for the man of the house! 

• Use as gift tags:  bits from old greeting cards; snowman shapes cut from plastic milk cartons; old piano keys! - or just write on the wrapper itself.

The aftermath:

• Did you save good-looking wrapping paper, ribbons, and garnishes at present-opening time?  (You can even reuse gift tags for people you're with at opening time.)

• Certain like-minded friends and I have fun passing paper back and forth from year to year (it's one of the layers of the gift :^). 

• Egg cartons and partitioned liquor cartons make good ornament storage containers. 

• Even a dead Christmas tree has its (re)uses!:  as kindling, branch tips in potpourri, needles covering garden paths, etc.

When we celebrate, most of us are eager to express and create something of value for ourselves, and for others.  I suppose you could say we're training our children at the same time, to value... what?  Maybe a little deliberate conservation is good to throw into the mix.  Certainly I count it one of our blessings, that we -can- make do with less - not just make do, but make a festival, practically out of thin air.

...That's when frugality really has -panache-!  Maybe there's a fourth R:  richness (in disguise). 

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Sherry Gordon is the author of The Sharing Season: Ideas for a Frugal, -Meaningful- Holiday (not just about The Three Rs, by any means): http://www.the-sharing-season.com.  She lives and writes in the Idaho backcountry and is the developer of the websites www.AffiliatePrimer.com, www.ThinkJointVenture.com, and www.AlternativePetHealth.com.